Dozens of people gathered Sunday in Salinas to celebrate a law passed a year ago that changed six crimes from felonies to misdemeanors.

In November 2014, nearly 60 percent of voters in California approved Proposition 47, reducing the classification of six non-violent property and drug crimes from a felony to a misdemeanor. In the year since it was passed, inmate populations have fallen across the state.

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Thousands of people cleared their records of low-level felonies. In Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, there have been hundreds of re-sentencing petitions and reclassification applications filed.

Juan Gomez is co-founder of the Salinas organization Motivating Individual Leadership for Public Advancement (MILPA) and he said this law demonstrates a shift in the way the public thinks about incarceration.

"To come home, to have another opportunity to be part of society, I mean the voters in California agree it's time," Gomez said. "We cannot continue to incarcerate or arrest our way out of this problem."

People joined with MILPA to celebrate the anniversary and to spread the word.

"We're trying to get as many people to petition as possible because there is a sunset provision and that's in November of 2017," said Vanessa Lim, Legal Fellow with the Watsonville Law Center. "After that date, people will no longer be able to reclassify felonies as misdemeanors."

"It's a huge opportunity for those that qualify to give them a better chance at life whether its employment, housing or student loans," said Israel Villa.

After a lifetime of being in and out of prison, Villa has dedicated himself to helping at-risk youth. He says while Prop 47 did not apply to him, he is optimistic about its impact on others.

"I don't know why they added the R to CDC. There ain't no rehabilitation happening. There really ain't no money being invested in serious programming. There ain't nothing that's addressing the underlying issues of why people get incarcerated, so that's why I think its important that Prop 47 passed," Villa said.

Critics of this law worried that without a felony charge to motivate them, drug offenders would not seek treatment through court and that crime would rise. The savings created by Proposition 47 are being redirected for use in prevention and intervention programs. Those funds will not be available until 2016.